TIL: Adam & Donna tried to tank Neo on the way out?

[lorina]

I hated orgins when they came out, but a good friend in RL just LOVED them. She had four. x3

UC Xweetoks were the best things ever. Conversion killed them imo. But I can see their name as sabotage, its a mouthful.

[kittyray]

I hated orgins when they came out, but a good friend in RL just LOVED them. She had four. x3

UC Xweetoks were the best things ever. Conversion killed them imo. But I can see their name as sabotage, its a mouthful.

I loved the old Xweetoks. I can see how the art feels a little bit messy(?), but it's such a shame they didn't get more colors before conversion. Like, could you imagine a UC Grey Xwee?

[Rhymes with Witch]

Honestly, from all the shit I read written by Donna and Adam, they lived, breathed, and shit Neopets for the period of their life they were a huge part of it. Seems the same with a lot of the other staff members. They had tons of shit going on behind the scenes that we never found out (that same AMA talks a little about Fyora being a god damn alien if I remember right), they constantly thought up new background and ideas for it. IDK, as an artist I've lovingly put out ugly shit because it's fun. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the snot color, which is waaay more heinous than custard, and one of my all time favorite neopets colors for its nastiness and how ugly-cool it looks!

IMO Adam and Donna loved Neopets a lot and it was their baby. As a petty creator of bullshit myself I can understand them creating content that's basically a middle finger to the people who owned the site they made popular. I doubt they intended on sabotaging the site, only making something ugly to watch Viacom pass it off as the Next Big Thing.

Then again if I was gonna make custard an uglier color and more of a fuck-you to higher ups, it'd look more like jizz.

[Ariella]

Speaking solely on 1999-2005 era with a little bit of Viacom era.
I dunno, TNT (specifically Adam and Donna) always had this extremely dark and self depreciating humor (TNT Staff Smasher, Sacrificers, and Ski Lodge) and this was honestly charming to the site cause you could never "pick up" on it. (you need an account to see links) The amount of teasing something like that in the early 00s was astronomical and I commend them for it.

(...)

Though I do agree they bit off more they can chew, but thinking about WHAT they did within the first 6 years is a reason why it was such a big hit. All the merchandise, mechanics, event, stories, and other features they've released is pretty dang impressive. If some things were a sabotage, I don't think any kid was going to see it and I think it would've pleased at least one person unironically or brushed off. If you make something fun and do listen while taking a jab at the community light-hearted and all, I think we can accept that fact.

This is a fantastic way of looking at it, thank you for sharing! The artist had an inside perspective, which is worth considering, but perhaps it was a bit of sour grapes too.

IMO Adam and Donna loved Neopets a lot and it was their baby. As a petty creator of bullshit myself I can understand them creating content that's basically a middle finger to the people who owned the site they made popular. I doubt they intended on sabotaging the site, only making something ugly to watch Viacom pass it off as the Next Big Thing.

Exactly, like the quote above, their dark humor was one of the best parts of early Neo.

[oventoast]

The funny thing is, Xwees and Ogrins look like f'ing beauts compared to the newest disaster Vandagyre

(Although I think if an owl-pet was done pre-conversion it would've been aces)

[Raposa]

(you need an account to see links)

I remember reading that AMA. Read it from top to bottom at least three times, and took in everything they said. The way they talk to fans and to each other makes me so giddy. They feel like real, genuine people and I just love them so much. Not everything was perfect, and it was never hidden. Even as a kid I admired that about them. The way they devoted everything they had to what they did. It's inspiring, even if it did ultimately turn out the way it did.

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk

[BlueLagoon]

I always loved xweetoks. I thought they were the best neopets before conversion. I wanted all the weird colored ones like Striped, Brown, Fire, & faerie as a kid. I thought they were so amazing loll.
I'm surprised they thought it was hideous. omg.
I thought a lot of people liked the xwees. haha.
Ogrins are just butt ugly so she was right about that.

I like the Ogrins, some colors are nice.

Xwees are my favorites though.

[bandit]

Oh wow... this is news to me haha. I didn't even know about the AMA. I remember when I was younger I would always go to Adam and Donna's UL.. I have no idea why.

[Sugar Rush]

Interesting topic. I read that whole AMA.

I guess you just kinda have to read between the lines, because I doubt anyone that has true inside knowledge about what went down is going to be hanging around a cheating forum to comment.

I doesn't seem like they would outright try to sabotage Neopets on their way out, no. They were burnt out, frustrated, admitted both sides could've handled it better, but if making Ogrins and Custard brushes was a serious insidious attempt, it would've been a pretty weak attempt. Much more "hideous" things by those hindsight standards were created during their time that cannot be blamed on a middle finger exit.

It comes across as a passive aggressive joke. Given how pissed they were about being forced to lay off their employees over the FB game, they don't seem like the kind of petty people that would've passed on the consequences of their indignation or ambitions to the staff the remained when Viacom took over. I just don't see it.

As for the other questions did they pass on all the knowledge needed to run Neo as best as possible? Is this why the site continues to be a shaky mishmash of coding that is only patched, never truly fixed?, I think one poster said it best when they said Viacom/Nickelodeon only cares about spongebob. They market the shit out of that show. They don't know how to handle any other IP besides spongebob. D&A seemed to be all about content. They were dropouts who liked to be creative. I don't think they were geniuses in an artistic or programming sense, despite taking credit for Neopets being "cutting edge" at the time. They've basically admitted to having a spotty track record of decision-making, including hiring/management. The crap coding is probably the way it is because D&A's content-driven ideas outpaced their ability to elegantly implement the coding, and Viacom just didn't really give enough of a shit to keep up with it either.

[funnybell]

Lmao this is great. I don't think the Xweetoks turned out bad though...

It's so sad to remember that they're gone as well as half the original TNT... Also too bad Adam and Donna's new company didn't work out, some of those games were fun.